Generation "Daily Show"

If you ask a college student where they get their news and political information, odds are the Daily Show would be on the list, if not at the top. This has caused some scholars concern due to the satirical nature of the show's content, but competing research has shown that consumers of the Daily Show are generally more informed and perform more civic engagement than those who simply "consume" the news from major television news programs.
In the commentary article, "The Daily Show Generation," by Mary Zeiss Stange, research and her own personal experience with students provides the basis of her claim that the Daily Show is a highly informative outlet for current events and provides incentive to become more knowledgeable.
Stange initially points to research conducted by two professors at East Carolina University who found that watching John Stewart's nightly show ends up causing young people to become more cynical about the government and news media. They explain that because of the impressionable nature of college aged youth, they are more easily swayed to believe what a popular show is telling them rather than think through it critically. By presenting this competing research at the onset of the article, Stange shows the opposing viewpoint she is going up against. She then points to far more compelling reasons why this is not necessarily (nor likely) the case.
As a professor, Stange requires her students to bring in and report on current events regularly, and to pay attention to the packaging that the information comes in. Over the years the internet has come to dominate the way that young people attain news and political information, which actually requires them to become more civically engaged and search it out themselves. This is compelling evidence that simply reading a newspaper or watching a national news broadcast won't give you the depth of information that is necessary to fully understand what is happening on a local and national level in politics.
It seems as though the intended audience for this commentary are adults over the age of thirty who do not view the Daily Show as a credible news source, and who are disheartened by the decline of newspaper readership and the lack of major news network consumption by today's youth. If you are already a Daily Show viewer, then I think that this article would just confirm your currently held beliefs regarding the newsworthiness of its content and contribution to civic engagement and knowledge. If not however, it may open your eyes to the benefits of this new type of satire-based political coverage.
I think that Stange is correct in her assertion that the news available online is highly valuable to youth today. This is important because it connects to the increased viewership of the Daily Show as well. The reason that viewers of the Daily Show are so knowledgeable regarding news and politics is because of the very nature of the show's content. In order to understand the humor of the show, a viewer needs to have previous understanding of the story or piece of news being discussed. Without first reading a news article or watching some new source, a person would not find the Daily Show funny and would likely turn the channel. This is definitely proof of an increased level of political and news knowledge amongst Daily Show viewers. Stange states that, "The Daily Show generation, in other words, is not only apt to be more concerned about politics but also more likely to be spurred to do something with that concern."
As a college aged person, I agree with Stange in all regards of her analysis of the political knowledge of youth today because I feel that it is accurate with what my friends, classmates, and I do in terms of news consumption. Whether or not this changes down the road, remains to be seen as more and more generations rely heavily (if not solely) on the internet and shows such as the Daily Show as their news sources.